The invention relates to a coding element for equipping at least one cam carrier of a rotor of a rotary press with at least one control cam element. The invention also relates to a control cam arrangement and a rotor for a rotary press. Furthermore, the invention relates to a method for equipping a cam carrier of a rotor of a rotary press with at least one control cam element.
Rotary presses and rotary tablet presses generally possess a rotor having an upper and lower punch guide and a die plate arranged therebetween. Furthermore, upper and lower control cams are provided that interact with the heads of upper and lower press punches of the rotary press, in particular in order to generate and guide the axial stroke of the upper and lower press punches. The control cams are generally constructed of a plurality of control cam elements that are fastened to a suitable cam carrier. Different control cam elements are assigned to the different stations of the rotary press, for example filling cam elements, dosing cam elements, pressure cam elements and ejection cam elements. It is very important for the cam carriers to be correctly equipped with control cam elements for the intended outfitting of the rotary press with stations. To prevent the cam carriers from being incorrectly equipped with control cam elements, the cam carriers are designed so that only a specific combination of control elements can be affixed thereto.
Different production states are supposed to be feasible with such rotary tablet presses. For example, it should be possible to change between the production of single-layer tablets and multilayer tablets. For such a change, it is generally necessary to also change the control cam elements. A rotary tablet press that is flexible to use therefore needs to permit different control cam combinations. Since the cam carriers are specially designed for just one combination of control cams, different cam carriers are therefore required for different control cam combinations. It is however involved to change a cam carrier. The precise position of the cam carrier is very important for the rotary press to operate. The cam carriers therefore possess elaborate fastening means with a plurality of fastening points. In addition, all the forces acting on the control cams during operation are absorbed by the cam carriers. Due to the high loads that therefore arise during operation, the cam carriers are stably designed and mounted and are very heavy. This design of the cam carriers renders changing them involved.
Based on the explained prior art, the object of the invention is to enable different combinations of control cams to be flexibly exchanged in an easy and reliable manner.